Officials ready to send Alex Salmond home from North Macedonia

Alex Salmond’s body is ready to be brought home to Scotland, officials in North Macedonia have said.

The Alba Party founder and ex-SNP leader and first minister died of a heart attack while attending a conference on Saturday.

The North Macedonian ministry of foreign affairs said the “technical work” of repatriation had been completed, and that they were “waiting for information regarding the departure time from the Scottish side”.

Supporters of Salmond have been lobbying the UK government to allow the RAF to fly his body to Scotland.

The UK foreign office has said it is providing consular support to Salmond’s family and is in contact with local authorities and the Scottish government.

The Scottish government has been asked to comment.

The former first minister was in Ohrid, North Macedonia, to attend an Academy for Cultural Diplomacy (ACD) conference.

Chris McEleny, general secretary of the Alba Party, flew to the city following Salmond’s death.

He called on the UK government to grant approval for his body to be flown directly back to Scotland. Conservative MP David Davis, a close friend of Salmond’s, has also lobbied the UK government to do so.

McEleny said using a commercial flight could take a “significant amount of time” and would be a “quite stressful and upsetting process”.

He told BBC Scotland’s Drivetime programme: “For his family’s sake, friends, we should get him home as quickly as possible. And for all that he’s done for Scotland, I think it’s the least that we can do for him.”

After tributes were paid to Salmond in the House of Commons, the Scottish Football Association confirmed a minute’s applause would be held at Scotland’s match against Portugal at Hampden on Tuesday evening.

The ex-first minister was a regular member of the Tartan Army, including at the Euros in Germany this summer.

News of his death broke during the Scotland men’s team match against Croatia in Zagreb.

The SFA sent condolences to Salmond’s family on Saturday.